Night Shift
by musicandme37
Summary: Brendan realises that night shifts at the club aren't all that bad in the end. Set a few months into Ste and Brendan's relationship.


The lights are too bright and flashy; the music is too loud and thumping. The bar is sticky and the floors are sticker. Brendan doesn't even want to know what the toilets look like. Sometimes Brendan hates night shifts at the club. They used to be a lot more entertaining when Steven had been working at Chez Chez, but now the night shifts were nothing but dull for him, despite everything the Minniver sisters did to spice it up. So he'd locked himself in his office, planning to sound-proof it more, whilst finishing paperwork, drinking whisky on his own, grimacing at himself for acting so old and realising that there was nowhere he'd rather be right then than in bed with Steven.

Brendan clenched his teeth when there was a knock on the door.

"Brendan?" Mitzeee's voice called through to him.

"I'm busy."

She came in anyway, flicking her hair about as she did so. Brendan had admired the armour she'd put on so soon after coming out of prison the year before. She'd reminded him of himself when he'd been let out, except she hadn't come out of prison with a beard, and he hadn't immediately pretended everything was fine by buying an expensive pair of heels and bravely tottering on. "I think you can spare a minute." She said.

Brendan sighed loudly, throwing down his pen and leaning back in his office chair with a raised eyebrow. "I don't think I can. I'm snowed under here, as you can see."

"What's gotten you in such a tizz?" She asked, hands flying to her hips. She watched him for a moment before her eyes lit up knowingly. "Aww." Her head tilted with a pout that could almost compete with Steven's. It was almost like she'd read his mind when she grinned wickedly. "Missing the boyfriend?"

"No."

"Of course not darling. Now can you listen for a second?"

"What's wrong?"

"There's a group of guys getting a bit rowdy and I think at least one of them is on something. I'll get the bouncers if anything gets out of hand but…" She held her hands up, in a 'don't shoot the messenger' gesture, "Thought I'd tell the boss."

"Let me know if anything kicks off."

She saluted with a wink and with a twirl of her dress she was gone.

Brendan ran a hand through his hair before shoving the paperwork back in its file and reaching for his phone. It was half one in the morning. It wasn't long before he could go home to bed. His phone background was a picture of him and Ste, and he considered texting him, but reconsidered when he glanced at the time again. The kids had to be up for school early in the morning, and Steven was probably fast asleep. Two years ago maybe Brendan wouldn't have cared so much, but now…his phone was placed back on the desk and he sat back with a huff.

x~x

Brendan could hear that the commotion between the rowdy lads in the club had gotten louder and out-of-hand even before Mitzeee rushed in crying out that "Things have escalated!"

Brendan was out of the door in a second, eyes immediately pinning the scrapping culprits and storming over through the parting crowd. He grasped one of the boys in the centre of the fight roughly by the collar and yanked him back. Brendan glared at him, eyes wide and menacing as he got up into the lad's face.

"What do ye think you're doing? Huh?" He hissed.

"Gerrof!" The lad yelled, fists flying.

Brendan shook him roughly and barely registered some of his bouncers drag the rest of the boys apart. Brendan hadn't failed to notice the blown pupils of the boy he had hold of. "Got something on your nose there, fella." He said, flicking the kid's nose and then watched with disgust as the guy rubbed the remaining evidence of illegal substances from his nostrils with the back of his hand. "If I find out you've been dealing in my club you're all dead men." He bared his teeth and upped his menace, as he moved in as close as possible, ignoring the stench of the idiot's breath. "Ye hearing me?"

The guy nodded quickly as Brendan man-handled him towards the stairs, knowing that his bouncers and the rest of the rabble weren't far behind. "Get out of my club and make sure I never see ye anywhere near my club again." He threw the kid out so harshly that he stumbled and nearly tripped up on the pavement. Brendan watched the gang of boys threateningly until they all scarpered. He then allowed himself to take a breath and headed back upstairs.

After that incident the adrenaline was flowing and Brendan was twitchy, wound up and on edge. He watched the rest of the clubbers from by the bar, making sure that there weren't any other junkies on the premises. God only knew he'd had enough of police investigations, junkies and their psycho brothers to last him a lifetime.

He didn't relax for the rest of the night, not even when the last stragglers left and the staff went about cleaning up. Brendan was well aware he still had issues with his anger and it was always difficult to let go of once he got worked up.

Brendan took a deep breath the minute he was out in the open air and locking the club's doors. He then spun on his heel and was just about to head up to his flat when he had a change of mind.

There was one person who could make everything better. Granted, Steven would be asleep, but just lying next to him would be enough. A few years ago Brendan would have been appalled at himself for depending so much on another person, but that was then, and this was now, and Brendan was now honestly open about how Steven meant everything to him. Besides, Steven had given him a key to his apartment, insisting that he came 'at any time', so that's exactly what Brendan was going to do.

x-H.O-x

The apartment was silent and dark when Brendan unlocked the door, slipped inside and relocked it. He knew the apartment as well as his own, so quickly and easily made his way to Ste's room and pushed the door open.

The old curtains weren't properly closed and the glare from a streetlight outside filtered through and onto Ste's sleeping form. His boy was sprawled out across the bed on his back, almost star-fished with his arms and legs lying every which way. The light from outside highlighted the dips, curves and edges of Ste's golden skin and lit up his sleep-mussed hair. He was only wearing boxers and the sheets had been kicked off in his sleep to the end of the bed.  
Even though they had been together for months now, and Brendan had seen Ste almost every single day of those months, Brendan still couldn't keep his eyes off him.

As though sensing Brendan's presence and roaming gaze, Ste shifted in his sleep and his face turned towards him, and Brendan couldn't help reaching out to trace his fingers up across Ste's cheek. Ste's eyelashes fluttered against Brendan's fingers when his eyes finally opened. "Bren?" He whispered, looking up at Brendan sleepily.

"Yeah, it's me."

"What time is it?" Ste murmured, slowly hoisting himself up on his elbows to eye the clock. "Urgh!" He groaned, collapsing back down. "It's past three!"

Brendan shifted guiltily in the doorway. "Sorry for waking ye."

"You had a bad shift?"

So, yeah, this wasn't the first time Brendan had done this. "Yeah."

"Can't handle the clubbers, old man?" Ste asked with a smile in his voice.

"You know I hate them, but they bring the cash so..."

"Remind me to take you clubbing for fun sometime." Ste mumbled into the pillow, "I'll make sure you enjoy it."

"That a promise?" Brendan grinned, wondering if Steven could actually dance sexily, because all he'd seen of Steven's dance moves in the past were more 90's disco than anything else. But then again, Steven was full of surprises and had more than sexy moves in bed, so anything was possible.

"Mm-hmm." Ste eyed him for a little longer before saying "So are you coming to bed?"

Brendan didn't need asking twice. He stripped himself of his clothes in a heartbeat, leaving on his boxers for a change – he'd learnt to wear boxers when the kids were staying with Ste, they had a habit of running into the bedroom at random moments – and he walked to the edge of the bed. "You going to hog the whole bed, Steven?"

"Sorry." Ste attempted to shift to the other side, until Brendan manhandled him the rest of the way and collapsed beside him.

Brendan reached for the sheets at the bottom of the bed and drew them up over them both and Ste immediately snuggled against Brendan's body, warming Brendan's cooled skin. Brendan ran his hands over Ste's bare back and traced his fingers up and down Ste's side, whilst Ste rested his head on Brendan's chest, trailing his fingers lazily through Brendan's chest hair.

"I'm glad you came." Ste whispered into the skin above Brendan's left nipple. "I don't like going to bed without you."

Brendan hid his smile in Ste's hair. "I missed you too."

Ste pressed a kiss to Brendan's skin. "Night Bren."

"G'night Steven."

x-H.O-x

The alarm came too loud and far too soon.

Brendan groaned loudly and when he felt Ste attempt to move off him, he stopped him by clamping an arm round his waist.

"I've got to get the kids ready Bren." Ste said into his ear, before nipping it with his teeth.

"That's not making me want to let you go." Brendan grumbled, expertly spinning them so that Ste was pinned to the bed, and Brendan lay half on top of him, head on his chest and a leg pushed between Ste's, arms still wrapped firmly round his middle.

"I guess I could stay for ten more minutes." Ste's voice was fond and he didn't really seem to mind Brendan lying on top of him in the slightest. Brendan made a sound of approval at Ste's wise decision.

Brendan could hear Ste's heartbeat against his ear and feel Ste's fingers tracking through his hair, effectively lulling him back to sleep.

x~x

It felt like barely a second had passed before he felt Ste wriggling out from under him and prising his arms from his body.

"Steven." Brendan growled as Ste escaped him, blindly reaching out with a hand to grab onto the nearest part of Ste he could reach, which turned out to be his ankle.

"I let you have twenty minutes instead of ten." Ste tutted. "I don't want to get up either, but I gotta get the kids to school. I've got a day off from the deli today though so I'll be back in a bit. Just be patient."

Brendan smoothed his thumb over the delicate, pointy bones of Ste's ankle. "You're asking me to be patient?"

"I think you can manage that. I'll be a couple of hours, tops, and we can spend the rest of the morning in bed and then I'll do you a fry-up brunch, yeah?"

Unable to argue with that, Brendan reluctantly uncurled his fingers from around Ste's ankle. "Sounds good to me."

"Good. Right, I'd better get up, me. Running well late already." Ste sounded as reluctant as Brendan felt.

"I can help with getting the kids ready…" Brendan offered, but it was half-hearted and even as he said it his eyes refused to open and Ste was laughing above him.

"Nah I'll let you sleep for once. You need your beauty sleep."

"Well, the compliments really are coming thick and fast from you at the moment – I'm an 'old man' that needs my 'beauty sleep' am I?"

In reply he felt lips press against his own. "You know I love you, and we both know you're gorgeous, so quit worrying."

Brendan felt the mattress lift as Ste got off it and he heard Ste clatter around the room as he got changed. He was asleep again before Ste even left the room.

x-H.O-x

The next time Brendan was woken up, it was from a warm body pressing close to his.

"You're back." Brendan reached out to gather Steven back into his arms. It was then he realised that Steven was completely naked, his hair was damp and he smelled of vanilla soap and apple shampoo. "You showered without me." Brendan complained.

"I thought I'd not disturb you and let you sleep longer."

Brendan pressed his nose into Ste's wet hair and took a deep breath in, letting the smell of apples fill his senses. "I'd rather have showered."

"But you were fast asleep." Ste argued, before lowering his lips to Brendan's ear, "And you're such a cute sleeper."

"Don't call me cute." Brendan growled, finally opening his eyes to glare at Ste. "I'm nothing but manly."

"Of course you are." Ste rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Oi!" Brendan grinned and pulled Ste on top of him, running his hands down Ste's body until they smoothed over and cupped his arse. He squeezed as he encouraged Ste to grind down harder against him.

"Mmm…this is my favourite kind of wake up call." Brendan leant up to catch Ste's lips. "How long have we got in bed?"

"Hours, if you want." Ste replied softly as he leant down to lick along Brendan's neck.

"I do want."

He didn't think there would ever be a time where he would not want this. He would never not want Steven.

Brendan moved his fingers to map them over Ste's lips and the younger man kissed and grazed his teeth over them as Brendan dragged Ste's bottom lip down slightly with his thumb. Brendan then hitched a breath as Ste sucked Brendan's fingers into his mouth.

Brendan found himself surging up for another kiss the minute his spit-slick fingers dropped from Ste's mouth.

They kissed for a long time, their tongues pressing and twining and taking time to explore, languidly gentle – a taster for the relaxed, slow morning sex that was to come - because they had hours to spend together like this, and there was no hurry. But that didn't mean that they weren't going to savour every moment.

After a while, Ste pushed Brendan back down to the mattress with his palms flat on Brendan's chest. Brendan looked up at Ste: lips red and parted, his still-damp and slightly curling hair wild and messy, "Well, seen as though you are still tired because you worked so late at your shift last night," His fingers curled teasingly around the top of Brendan's boxers in order to peel them off. "You just lie right there and let me take care of you, ok?"

Brendan could only grunt in agreement as Ste shot him a butter-wouldn't-melt, lazy grin and lowered his head to take Brendan's cock into his mouth.

And Brendan knew that it was the moments like these – coming home really late to lie beside an already sleep-warm Steven, and Steven 'taking care of him' the next morning - that best helped to remind him just why he put up with the night shifts at the club after all.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!  
Any reviews would be most loved and appreciated!  
mnm37 x**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own Hollyoaks)**


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